Arkansas Blog

It's always worth repeating: Save Your Hometown -- Boycott Wal-Mart.

I hear All Things Considered on NPR will broadcast a report this evening on Harry Ashmore and the Arkansas Gazette during the Little Rock school crisis.

i have been boycotting wal mart for a long time and i am starting to feel like it has been successful. i have seen small drops in profits over previous years and was encouraged but this is overwhelming. first the cardinals, then the hogs, then the democrats now my boycott of walmart is successful. what a year.

I've become miffed at Wal*Mart and launched many short-lived boycotts. I always end up having to go back in there eventually. It's just too far to drive to another town for everyday items.

I guess that's why they're not caving in to the recent protests and boycotts from religious groups over Wal*Mart's cooperation with that "gay chamber of commerce" group. Wal*Mart knows that, in spite of strong feelings, most people, at least those in small towns, will end up having to return to Wal*Mart eventually.

spirit i didn't say my wife doesn't shop there. i just said i dont shop there. it is more a boycott in spirit if you want to consider it that but it means that i will not go there myself. i will go to target or somewhere else. so maybe it is really only a 1/2 boycott but evidently this boycott is successful. maybe it is a boycott in my mind, you have to consider the condition of my mind, it can be an unusual world occupied by sometimes unusual ideas but it is successful , their stock is down 5 % so we are winning.
Wal mart is the man and we can't do anything about it. they will stay on top unless they screw up so monumentally that nobody could recover from it. they don't care about a few protests or how many small laws they break because they will eventually win. it is just nice to fanticize about beating them occasionally.

It's easy for Louie to advocate to boycott Wal~Mart since every mile that he drives can be written off as a business expense - not everyone in Nashville is so lucky.

His dislike for Wal~Mart has nothing to do with prices, quality, working conditions/wages, etc. Wal~Mart does not advertise in his newspaper, past or present; therefore, Wal~Mart is on his "do not shop" list.

When Wal~Mart moved from a division 1 store to a supercenter in Sept. 03, I was curious to see how the sales tax collections would compare with past periods. Louis' papers, both past and present, run a chart each month listing monthly tax collection, distrubution and comparison with LAST month's collection. Most everyone would know that comparing this month with last month is like comparing Granny Smith apples with Yellow Delicious apples. Similar but not the same.

Made me think that Louie and the PTB do not want the citizens of Howard County to know that there was an increase in the collection and distribution of sales tax. And, as you all know, you don't pick a fight with a man that buys his ink by the barrel. Oh yeah, Louie's not buying any ink today - he farms his printing out to someone in another county rather than use the local printer.

Back to WalMart.
WM has not kept pace with the "hot" electronics market, which is about all that matters in electronics, last year's models don't sell. It's a market where you can lose big if you make poor choices. They keep moving their seasonal loss leader, the laptop, down the price ladder but it didn't do it.
They will not pay a wage to attract people who know electronics. The cutting edge of many new products, new companies, will not agree to WM's purchase terms: 120-180 days to pay invoice and 100% return for unsold items. The purchase terms often finds a vendor making a refund before WM has paid for the initial invoice. Nice trick when you are big enough to get by with it.

Many shoppers have wised up to the poor quality of merchandise as WM has mandated to many manufactures to cut whatever it takes to sell a product for less.

Another element that plays heavy on this story is specialty merchants.
These guys have carved out niche' where WM will not compete and many products are becoming "specialty" items.

Be sure to mention that online sales are steadily growing and made a big jump this year. The billions that are sold on eBay is bound to hurt some retailers.

Fashion statement clothing is likely the worse mistake the giant has made. Not suited for the WM customer, middle-low income on a tight budget.

Oh, BTW Louie, boycotts have a lousy history of being effective, either for a nation or a neighborhood.

The only successful boycott I have ever studied occurred in the South during segregation days, when merchants and muni bus systems were boycotted, in Atanta, Montogmery and other hot spots.
Very successful but their's was a higher purpose.

The Tuesday night before Thanksgiving Wal-Mart (Dave
Ward) was completely out of turkeys. Now...upscale clothing is the least of its worries if it can't do any better than that before a holiday (it's not like Thanksgiving snuck up on them).

Then there's the store remodeling that took place over the last...seems like a year. Stuff would be moved to the other side of the store without so much as a hint where (I'm a retail idiot but even I would have stuck temporary signs saying 'moved to such and such).

Kroger treats me great, finds whatever I want, has a real meat department and hauls my groceries out (which gets them lots of points in my old book. The last time I asked for help with 50 lbs of seed at Wal-Mart I waited for 20 minutes before leaving and rolling it into my trunk). Oh yeah, Kroger had plenty of turkeys.

Yes, but you pay more at Kroger.
I'd rather pay less and haul my own stuff out to the car plus I always feel funny when the poor kid is hauling my stuff out to the car. Just a bit to elitist for me, like I'm special... I just refuse normally.

WalMart is their own worse enemy.
Long term employees do not even recognize the company they are working for from the one they wored for 6 months ago.
The stupid clothes they added this year and doing away with layaway is what hurt them.
Mid to low income folks shopped at walmrt the day after Christmas beause they COULD put things on layaway. Without layaway they had no reason to go to walmart for the same tired old door busters that they could get at Target or Best Buy.

Here is a tip for all the Walmart haters out there. Target sucks too. I picked up a xmas job there to fill in the gap caused by the cut in my hubby's overtime. It sucks (actually it could be that all of these big box retail places treat their employees like crap except for COSTCO) They pay the same as wally world and treat their employees like crap. I'm tired of Target getting a pass because they have better PR.

Folks hate walmrt because they are the biggest, not because they are the worst.

"Yes, but you pay more at Kroger.
I'd rather pay less and haul my own stuff out to the car plus I always feel funny when the poor kid is hauling my stuff out to the car. Just a bit to elitist for me, like I'm special... I just refuse normally..."

Well...I am special. Though elitist is not a label that's been tossed my way.

Specialness aside...people have illnesses/ailments that prevent them from hauling/loading heavy items.

I don't hate Walmart because they are the biggest. I hate Walmart because of the way they treat their employees and lack of customer service. In addition, they assume all of their customers are criminals. It seems everything over $20 is locked up. Just try to get someone to unlock the case for a purchase.

It's pretty commonly understood that shoppers don't go to Wally nor Sams for service nor for quality.

Wally does furnish electric chairs for imparied shoppers. That's about it.

What's spooky with the giant's entry into organic food is the strong potential for the organic label to become politicized. By simply adding 5-6 organic items to their offerings last year, WM became the world's largest organic retailer.
China , the world's rapidest growing polluter, will quickly become WM largest organic supplier.
I will stay with our local organic coop and gladly spend the extra $4-5 week.

I wouldn't eat Wal-Mart "organic" food for anything. I wouldn't believe the labeling.

But then again, I only go to one when I absolutely HAVE to. I drive right by a WM, then about another 5 miles to get to a different store.

I avoid Wal-Mart whenever possible, they no longer give you an opportunity to buy an American made product & I refuse to purchase anything made in China. Just about anything you find in WallyWorld sports a tag saying made in China and most of the time there's not a comparable item produced by American workers, regardless of the selling price...they can just keep the stuff as far as I'm concerned, I'll do without. Their policies are killing the America in which I grew up.

I avoid Wal-Mart whenever possible, they no longer give you an opportunity to buy an American made product & I refuse to purchase anything made in China. Just about anything you find in WallyWorld sports a tag saying made in China and most of the time there's not a comparable item produced by American workers, regardless of the selling price...they can just keep the stuff as far as I'm concerned, I'll do without. Their policies are killing the America in which I grew up.